


the crypto castle

by sympathy_for_hordak (sparrow0)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Anti Cryptocurrency, Autistic Character, Crack, Cryptography, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Post-Canon, Special Interests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21865588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrow0/pseuds/sympathy_for_hordak
Summary: Catra makes an impolite comment with unexpected results.For the purposes of this fic, the history of cryptography on Etheria happened exactly as it did in our reality.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	the crypto castle

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Codes and Keys](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22087636) by [sympathy_for_hordak (sparrow0)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrow0/pseuds/sympathy_for_hordak). 



When Catra said it, the meeting in the Bright Moon War Council room had just finished, and Queen Glimmer had formally dismissed everyone. 

As Catra would insist later, she hadn't meant to start anything. Catra had said and done so many things to Entrapta that Catra expected the geek princess to ignore this, too. 

Entrapta had turned to Catra, loud and eager, and Catra hadn't wanted to deal with her whole grating, oblivious thing right at that moment. Catra hadn't been thinking about it beyond "ugh, not now." 

Catra hissed, "Go back to your Bitcoin castle, freak." 

Entrapta slammed her tablet down onto the table. "How dare. How dare you! Crypto means cryptography!" She rose onto her hair tendrils, looming over Catra, and began to speak faster. "Since before Rome, people have gone to tremendous lengths to keep secrets in writing! Ours is an ancient and glorious tradition, one that has changed the course of history. How could you say something so wrong?"

Entrapta tipped her head to one side, then back. "I guess maybe nobody told you. I know I had to offer to explain math to you, earlier, when I was hacking the planet, so I suppose I'll start at the beginning. Secrets have always been about power and authority, and for thousands of years cryptography - the technologies used to write secrets in codes that not everyone could understand - was exclusively the domain of governments..."

Entrapta's lecture continued, dashing through Caesar ciphers, frequency analysis, the weaknesses of symmetric keys, Bletchley Park, Claude Shannon's invention of information theory, and Diffie-Hellman key exchange. 

"...and then, these three guys, Rivest, Shamir, and uh - " Entrapta broke off, snapping her fingers. "Uh, A, what's his name, Rivest, Shamir, and - "

"Adleman, dear," Lord Hordak said. 

"Right, and Adleman. So these three, later known as RSA, implemented - wait." Entrapa stopped, turning around to look at him, noticing that everyone in the room was watching. "Wait. Why isn't anybody disagreeing or - or leaving or telling me to stop?" she asked, softer and quieter. 

"You're obviously correct," Hordak answered. 

"I am?" Entrapta echoed, turning to look at Catra. "Really?" 

"Probably, but you've lost me," Catra admitted. "What does any of this have to do with anything?" 

"Okay, so, we've had thousands of years of brilliance, of information theory and truth and glory, and I can go into as much depth on all that as you like. Someday, academics may say the advent of public-key cryptography and the microchip transformed civilization further and faster than the printing press. That's cryptography. That's what 'crypto' has always meant and will always mean." 

Entrapta took a deep breath, and when she continued, her voice was colder. "Very recently, some absolute buffoons, some scamming slimeballs decided they ought to reuse that term to mean terrible fake Internet money. Their so-called 'crypto currency' is a pathetic fraud. It is garbage. Crypto means cryptography. Do not make that mistake again." 

Catra opened her mouth. Catra closed it again. 

"But - but I thought you were pals in the Horde," Perfuma said, voice wavering with disappointment. "Why would you be mean to your friend?" she asked Catra. 

Catra boggled. "After everything I've done, this is mean? This? I - I've tried to kill everyone in this room!" Her eyes briefly flicked to the alien behind Entrapta, and then back to her. "I've been really mean to some of you!" 

"You had reasons. It seemed like a good idea at the time." Entrapta shrugged. "None of that was about crypto, anyways. It didn't seem personal."

"Entrapta, when I insulted you and your boyfriend in nearly every manner I can think of, it should have seemed personal. What else could it possibly be?" Catra said, her ears flat against her head. 

Hordak growled. 

"Catra, let's go, we have to go be somewhere else, right now," Adora invented frantically, putting her hand on Catra's elbow. 

"It's really okay, Adora," Entrapta offered. "Catra says stuff like that about everybody, you most of all. I thought it was because we were friends again. I'm excited about the Crypto Castle because it's my home and cryptography is fascinating and beautiful but I haven't said anything about the rest of it because I haven't cared." 

"You insulted her home?" Perfuma gasped. 

"Ugh. I didn't know it was possible for people to be this weird about like one word." Then, carefully, Catra added, "You think we're friends?" 

"I hope so, or if we're not, I want to be," Entrapta said, looking at the table. 

Catra sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry, I guess. Whatever. I want to be friends, too." 

"Whatever," Entrapta agreed warmly. "It's not a problem. I didn't even get to the eighties yet, and there's a lot I left out, but if you have other stuff to do that's cool."

"I don't have any other stuff to do, and this room is free for the next couple of hours," Bow said. "You can tell me everything." 

"Okay, I'm gonna stay too, this is kind of amazing," Mermista said. 

"Oh, um, okay, if you all really want to listen, I guess...you don't have to..." Entrapta said. 

Scorpia flipped to a new page in her notebook. Nobody else moved. 

Entrapta took a deep breath. "Where was I?" 

"Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman. RSA," Hordak prompted. 

"Right! So these three guys built an implementation that..."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [livielightyear](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/livielightyear/pseuds/livielightyear) and [juliaset](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/juliaset) for betaing. 
> 
> None of the things Entrapta mentions are fictional, they can all be looked up online, and most of the individuals mentioned are presently alive. If any real person named in this fic or any of their students, descendants, or employees has sufficiently advanced Google Alerts or whatever to come across this thing: I'm very, very sorry. 
> 
> Glimmer referred to Entrapta's home as the Crypto Castle exactly once, and I am writing a long, serious post-season-4 hacking fic partly as a result of that line, but I had to get this absurdity out of my system first.
> 
> Update 2019-Jan-02: tweaked tags and title, added the serious hacking fic as a parent work now that I have started to post it.


End file.
